White Arc AAA lite compared to....?

[Gandalf]

I purchased a white CMG Infinity light when they became available, and I was sorely disappointed with it. Just not enough light output; I thought it would put out light 'similar' to my white Stylus. Nope. Thanks to the great information on The Punishment Zone, at The Led Museum, an almost unbelievable site, for LED enthusiasts, I learned the green CMG Infinity puts out much more light. So, I got one. And it does put out a *lot* more light than the white CMG. But, it's, well, *green*.
So I looked up the newer Arc AAA light, and it does put out quite a lot more light than the CMG. But again, the Arc AAA in white puts out substantially less light than the Arc AAA in aqua/turquoise. I like the idea of the smaller Arc, compared to the CMG Infinity.
My question is: how does the white Arc AAA compare to the CMG in green? As much as I like the idea of a tiny light such as the photon II, I'd prefer a more traditional style and operation; you know, a cylinder that you twist to turn on; plus, AAA batteries are really cheap, compared to lithium coin cells.
I know the Arc-LS is going to put out way more light, but it's also going to be much larger, and cost a *lot* more. I'd like a nice, small, tough white LED flashlight, and the Mag Solitaire-sized Arc AAA is an ideal size and shape, for me. Input? Criticism? Comments from the peanut gallery? Flames?
Anyone have a white Arc AAA they'd like to trade for a White CMG Infinity? (Yeah, right; but I have *lots* of interesting things I could 'throw in', when you have about a hundred flashlights on hand, you tend to have a *lot* of flashlight related stuff, also, like batteries, replacement lamps, whole flashlights I simply don't use anymore, etc. Just a thought...)
Thanks!

 

[Steelwolf]

I'm sorry that I can't answer the specific question as I never owned a green Infinity. But the Arc-AAA white does blow the Infinity out of the water. It is on par with a Photon II that has had fresh batteries but has been running for about 10 minutes.

This may be a hard question to answer in any case, as our eyes react differently to different colours. I wonder if the green/turquoise/aqua LEDs look brighter because of our eyes' increased sensitivity to those colours.

BTW, if you mention an "objective" test using solar cells or other photo receptive electronic devices, I would like to point out that all the semi-conductors I've seen so far used in solar cells react best to certain frequencies of light, so that wouldn't be a very objective test either.

 

[Chris M.]

how does the white Arc AAA compare to the CMG in green?

Like this....

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It`s a bit light in here for beam profile pics so I turned the iris down to make it clearer. The green infinity appears brighter here however the white Arc has a softer beam that falls over a wider angle- plus being white, it will be clearer to see things compared to the green so it appears brighter to the human eye.

The meter says.....

white Arc- 10.9 candela (peak).
green Infinity- 8.0 candela.

Steelwolf makes a good point about light meters being more sensitive to certain colours. I don`t know about my meter- it seems about right though- certainly close anyway.

I`d definately go with the white AAA Arc. Much smaller, bright too and stays almost at full power for much of the battery life.

Sorry, there isn`t one going spare here but I`m sure someone out there has....

 

[Gandalf]

Thanks for the picture, Chris!

The vote seems to be that the white Arc is much brighter than the CMG; proably, it puts out about what I was expecting the CMG to put out!

So it looks like I'll be ordering a white Arc AAA light

.
The impression I've gotten from the forum has been pretty positive for the white Arc AAA; I just needed a little 'nudge', to do what iI've been thinking of doing for awhile, now! Thanks, all!

 

[vcal]

This Arc comparison is about the Arc-1 and the Arc-2nd gen:
The Arc-2 I'm fondling

right now, as I write-should get a 3-"F" rating. (that would be for fit, finish, and finesse).....
With NO interest in flattery (& I'm no good at it anyway), I can, after close examination, notice small, but definite improvements over Gen.1 Arc-AAA:
1. a superior fit head/body
2. better appearing-the head knurling is a bit more limited, giving a better look.
3. not mentioned before, but important to me is the slightly more "meaty" tail loop on this light than on the Gen.1. ---It's obvious the mfr. looked at even the smallest details of the new Arclight. and have now what I consider to be a mature product.
I know this micro-flashlight costs $25. but it feels like a professional light when you operate it.=)

If I don't LOSE this light, it will probably last a lifetime.

-The only troublesome aspect of ownership of this light is the prospect of a more powerful Arclight to appear in the near future, of the same size, but a lot more powerful

 

[sodakar]

Hmm, I wasn't going to dwell on this, but this is probably the 3rd/4th time I've seen someone on the boards say something to the extent of:

"The Arc-AAA is roughly the same brightness as a Photon II."

In my experience, I find that the white Photon II is an eye-balling-guesstimate of 20% brighter than the white Arc-AAA. Even with fresh batteries, I can easily tell which flashlight I am using from the light output. Granted, it still kicks the CMG Infinity's white LED butt to oblivion, it's noticably dimmer than the Photon II.

On a generic scale of 1-10, I find:

10 - Photon II
8 - Arc-AAA
3 - Infinity

...at least that's how it feels to me...

 

[vcal]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kjmori:

In my experience, I find that the white Photon II is an eye-balling-guesstimate of 20% brighter than the white Arc-AAA. Even with fresh batteries, I can easily tell which flashlight I am using from the light output. Granted, it still kicks the CMG Infinity's white LED butt to oblivion, it's noticably dimmer than the Photon II.

On a generic scale of 1-10, I find:

10 - Photon II
8 - Arc-AAA
3 - Infinity

...at least that's how it feels to me...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have found almost exactly the same thing...that's what my meters indicate also, but the differential doesn't bother me much......
And, after all, it IS in line with what was originally claimed.

 

[Brock]

That is odd since using my meter I get 19 mcd using brand new batteries in my Photon 3 and 18 mcd using the Arc with a new battery. Maybe most people have used their Photons for more then 5 minutes and they are sitting at the 12-15mcd level, right about where the Arc sits most of it's battery life.

Or maybe it's the preceived brightness since you can see the LED from every direction on the Photon? I can say the Photon drops to about 5mcd after 1 hour of use.

I just like the ability to use standard AAA cells and let it run for a long time without getting to dim. The Photon just eats batteries to fast for me.

 

[vcal]

Brock,
I've tried the same approach as you, but the Gen.1/Gen.2 vs. Wt.Photon 2 comparison results remain the same, UNTIL the Photon has been left on for about an hour.

-------------OR-----------------
I must have one heckava great Photon!

 

[Brock]

Well I just won a bit on Ebay for 25 2016's so when I get those I will do a similar test on the Photon with new batteries and see what happens.